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Risks of Prescribing Psychiatric Drugs to Veterans

Mad in America

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require warnings for persistent sexual dysfunction, for example, and today the agency is attempting to defend itself from a lawsuit by the consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen, which claims that it failed to respond to a 2018 petition to do so. Millions of others share this experience.

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Mood Tracking: My System for Reducing Psychiatric Hospitalizations

Mad in America

It’s about learning to self-regulate, so that, if and when mental storms pass through, they no longer require such harsh societal intervention. Efforts at Self-Regulation Being placed in psychiatric hospitals at a rate of almost once per year was greatly disturbing, and it provided me with motivation to get my situation under control.

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The Trauma Craze: How the Expansion of Trauma Diagnoses Fueled Victimhood Culture

Mad in America

Adding insult to injury, ICD-11 (2018) added complex PTSD (C-PTSD) to address prolonged trauma, such as childhood abuse or long-term domestic violence, acknowledging broader symptoms like emotional dysregulation and identity struggles. It also introduced separate criteria for children and teens.

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Interpersonal Caring as an Act of Resistance Among Socially Marginalized

Mad in America

To imagine these people as having traversed these landscapes losing all their belongings and sense of self. The residents seem somewhat aware of this; however, it is the medicalization of their illness experience that they resist. This photograph of them was made on the day of his departure in 2018. and Trundle, C. Harding, R.

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My Red October – An Army Veteran’s Crucible to Recovery

Mad in America

But by the end of 2018, life started to become overwhelming. I was a shell of my former self, unable to think, staring off into space; all while trying my best to care for my family. I began talk therapy and peer support programs, and started holistic treatments such as meditation.

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Giving Caregivers a Platform: Meagan, Mother of Matt

Mad in America

But the combined intelligence and cognitive awareness of Matt and his mother’s tenacity for answers undoubtedly gave him a second chance on life. I knew in October of 2018 that Matt was in trouble during a phone call, when he told me in a cheerful voice that he had been to the ER for “mental health reasons” but was “fine.”

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Letting Go of Lithium

Mad in America

From 2018 to the end of 2019, I went from Austin to Colorado to Oregon to Costa Rica to Nicaragua to West Texas to Austin. I had had enough of the gypsy life, and I found a somatic coach to help me process, heal and learn self-regulating skills. I had more awareness. By that time my nervous system had had enough.